Video Game Icon Athene Explains How He Raised a Million Dollars for Africa

Video gaming for charitable causes is not a new phenomenon, but with the popularity of gaming higher than ever, the amount which players are contributing to worthy causes is skyrocketing. One of the most impressive feats in the history of charitable gaming happened actually this past month, and it was organized by a man whom I had the chance to speak with today.

Bachir Boumaaza, or Athene as he's known to most, is a massively popular YouTuber whose videos and streams have attracted hundreds of thousands of fans from all around the world. He's quite a character on video, but in real life, Athene has a heart of gold, best demonstrated recently by his ability to raise money for charity, and lots of it. This month he achieved what would seem like an impossible goal, raising a million dollars for Save the Children in Africa, largely through viewer donations.

Our conversation starts below:

Forbes: How long have you been gaming and YouTubing for a living? How did you start out?

Athene: I started in 2007 and was among the very first gaming-oriented YouTube channels. I didn't earn anything at the start but that changed about 2 years ago. My goal has always been building out a following to bring awareness around important issues.

You seem to be a much different person in real life than what we see in your videos. Is it really a character you're playing most of the time?

Athene is a caricature of myself, so it's somewhere in between.

When did you first realize that you could use your channel for charitable purposes? What was your first donation event you put on?

I only realized it very recently when I organized a tournament where people could donate and raised $23k. Before that we mainly raised awareness around net neutrality issues.

Tell me a little bit about how you got started with Sharecraft. What prompted you to aim for a million dollars in donations?

Since we had a very good experience with Save The Children with our first fundraiser, I approached them and asked where they thought, since they are more experienced, the need was the biggest, They told me the Horn of Africa, and since DC Entertainment was matching up to $500k I believed it would be achievable if the gaming community would come together.

You ended up hitting your goal of a million live at Dreamhack. Where did it all come from? How much was donations from regular viewers, and how much was from other parties? Where is it going now?

The timing was very coincidental but since Razer asked us if we could attend Dreamhack Summer 2012 and we were about to hit the target, combining both seemed the best thing to do. All donations went straight to Save The Children's Paypal and is used in the Horn of Africa. Almost all donations are from regular viewers. Aside from DC Entertainment matching, the only company that also raised money for ShareCraft was Curse (MMO-Champion) and that was around $6k.

Now that you've achieved this milestone, what's your next charitable goal?

I'm planning to go to West Africa and do something similar but livestream from the field where people can see directly what their donations are doing and interact with the children they are saving.

What do you think are some misconceptions about the gaming community in general?

That gaming is harmful or that gamers are slacktivists and waste their life gaming.

Thanks to Athene for speaking with me, and you can donate to Save the Children yourself here.